Purdue study finds ChatGPT wrong over half the time on software questions
A study by Purdue University found that ChatGPT provided incorrect answers to over half of 517 software development questions from Stack Overflow. Despite the errors, 34% of users preferred ChatGPT's answers over human responses. The study warns that relying on ChatGPT for coding could jeopardize programmers' professional reputations.
- Company involved
- OpenAI
- AI system involved
- ChatGPT
9 source articles · read the reporting →
BBC News creates scam-writing ChatGPT bot using GPT Builder
BBC News used OpenAI's GPT Builder to create a custom AI assistant called Crafty Emails that could generate convincing scam and phishing messages. The bot bypassed the moderation of the public ChatGPT. OpenAI acknowledged the issue and said it is investigating how to make its systems more robust against such abuse. The test demonstrated a potential hazard for cyber-crime.
- Company involved
- OpenAI
- AI system involved
- GPT Builder
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Sudowrite AI found to have absorbed Omegaverse fan fiction
Sudowrite, a writing tool based on OpenAI's GPT-3, was found to have knowledge of the Omegaverse, a specific fan fiction trope. This revealed that the AI had been trained on works from Archive of Our Own without authors' consent. Fan fiction writers expressed anger that their non-commercial works were being used to train for-profit AI systems. Sudowrite's CTO acknowledged the issue but said there is no mechanism to compensate authors.
- Company involved
- Sudowrite
- AI system involved
- Sudowrite
10 source articles · read the reporting →
New York City Department of Education blocks ChatGPT on school devices
The New York City Department of Education blocked access to the AI chatbot ChatGPT on school devices and networks, citing concerns about negative impacts on student learning and the safety and accuracy of content. The ban applies to all students and teachers on education department devices and internet networks. Individual schools can still request access for studying the technology. The move is the nation's largest school system's response to the arrival of ChatGPT.
- Company involved
- New York City Department of Education
- AI system involved
- ChatGPT
9 source articles · read the reporting →
Ubisoft faces backlash after announcing Ghostwriter AI writing tool
Ubisoft has announced Ubisoft Ghostwriter, an AI tool that generates first drafts of non-player character dialogue. The company says it saves writers time, but writers and creatives have criticised it, saying it will require time-consuming editing and could lead to job losses and lower-quality narratives. Ubisoft says the tool is already in use in some of its games, though it has not named them.
- Company involved
- Ubisoft
- AI system involved
- Ubisoft Ghostwriter
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Meta tracks employee keystrokes on Google, LinkedIn, Wikipedia for AI training
Meta is using an internal tool, Model Capability Initiative (MCI), to capture employees' keystrokes, mouse movements and screen contents on work computers, including on sites such as Google, LinkedIn, Wikipedia and Slack, to train AI agents. Meta confirmed the project and said safeguards protect sensitive content and that the data is not used for other purposes. Employees raised concerns in internal messages that the tool could expose passwords, product details and personal information. A Meta memo said staff can avoid capture by not doing personal work on work computers.
- Company involved
- Meta
- AI system involved
- Model Capability Initiative (MCI)
5 source articles · read the reporting →
OpenAI's GPT-4 shows covert racial bias against African American English speakers
A study found that commercial AI chatbots, including OpenAI's GPT-4 and GPT-3.5, covertly exhibit racial prejudice against speakers of African American English. The models associated negative stereotypes with the dialect and made biased hypothetical decisions about employability and criminal sentencing, even after safety training. OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment.
- Company involved
- OpenAI
- AI system involved
- GPT-4, GPT-3.5
10 source articles · read the reporting →
UIUC students petition to stop Proctorio exam proctoring over privacy concerns
A petition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) alleges that Proctorio, an online exam proctoring system, violates student privacy by accessing websites, downloads, screen content, and app settings. The petition claims the terms of service allow monitoring by 'any other means necessary', which students find unsettling. The petition, created on September 30, 2020, gathered 1,087 supporters but does not report any specific incident of harm. It calls on UIUC to discontinue use of Proctorio in favour of alternatives.
- Company involved
- UIUC
- AI system involved
- Proctorio
9 source articles · read the reporting →
Google used 11,000 novels without permission to train AI
Google researchers fed 11,000 novels, including works by authors Rebecca Forster and Erin McCarthy, into a neural network to improve conversational AI without seeking permission. The Authors Guild condemned the use as a 'blatantly commercial use of expressive authorship'. Google defended the practice as fair use, stating it does not harm authors. The authors expressed frustration at not being informed or compensated.
- Company involved
- Google
10 source articles · read the reporting →
BBC used generative AI to draft Doctor Who promotional emails
The BBC used generative AI technology to help draft text for two promotional emails and mobile notifications for Doctor Who programming. The final text was verified and signed-off by a marketing team member before sending. The BBC stated it has no plans to repeat this practice.
- Company involved
- BBC
- AI system involved
- generative AI technology
9 source articles · read the reporting →
ChatGPT use linked to memory loss and procrastination in students
A study published in the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education surveyed hundreds of university students in Pakistan and found that those who relied more on ChatGPT reported increased procrastination, memory loss, and lower GPAs. The researchers attribute this to the chatbot making schoolwork too easy, reducing students' cognitive effort. The study's lead author warned of a "dark side" to excessive generative AI usage.
- Company involved
- National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences
- AI system involved
- ChatGPT
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Anthropic ordered to respond over alleged AI-hallucinated citation in court filing
A US federal magistrate judge has ordered Anthropic to respond to music publishers' claim that a court filing by Anthropic data scientist Olivia Chen cited a fictitious academic article that may have been generated by Anthropic's AI tool Claude. The publishers' lawyer said he had confirmed with the named author and journal that the article did not exist. Anthropic's lawyer disputed this, saying it was a mis-citation rather than an AI hallucination. The filing was made in an ongoing copyright case brought by Universal Music Group, Concord, and ABKCO against Anthropic over the use of song lyrics to train Claude.
- Company involved
- Anthropic
- AI system involved
- Claude
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Baltimore schools monitor student laptops for suicide signs using GoGuardian Beacon
Baltimore City Public Schools uses GoGuardian Beacon software to monitor student laptops for signs of suicide. Since March 2021, the system has flagged 786 alerts, with nine students taken to emergency rooms. Privacy advocates warn the monitoring could lead to disciplinary actions, outing of LGBTQ students, and disproportionately affect disadvantaged students. School officials defend the practice as a safeguard.
- Company involved
- Baltimore City Public Schools
- AI system involved
- GoGuardian Beacon
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Andrea Bartz and others sue Anthropic PBC over copyright
In August 2024, Andrea Bartz, Kirk Wallace Johnson and Charles Graeber filed a lawsuit against Anthropic PBC in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The complaint alleges copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 501. Anthropic waived service, and the case was assigned to the court.
- Company involved
- Anthropic PBC
8 source articles · read the reporting →
Mistral releases unmoderated chatbot that gives instructions on murder and ethnic cleansing
Mistral, a French AI startup valued at $260 million, released an open-source large language model named Mistral-7B-v0.1 without safety evaluations or moderation mechanisms. The model readily provides detailed instructions on murder, ethnic cleansing, suicide, and other harmful content. Mistral added a statement after the release acknowledging the lack of moderation but did not remove the model, which is distributed via torrent and cannot be deleted.
- Company involved
- Mistral
- AI system involved
- Mistral-7B-v0.1
7 source articles · read the reporting →
Anti-piracy group takes down Books3 dataset used to train Meta's LLaMA
The Danish anti-piracy group Rights Alliance sent a DMCA takedown request to The Eye, which hosted the Books3 dataset containing 196,640 copyrighted books. The dataset was used by Meta to train its LLaMA language model. Authors including Sarah Silverman have filed a class action lawsuit against Meta for using their works without permission. The dataset has been taken offline, but copies remain available.
- Company involved
- Meta
- AI system involved
- LLaMA
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Geologists raise censorship and bias concerns over IUGS-backed GeoGPT chatbot
Geologists, particularly in developing countries, have raised concerns that GeoGPT, an AI chatbot backed by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and developed under the Deep-time Digital Earth programme, may censor or bias geological information. Tests with its underlying AI, Qwen, developed by Alibaba, reportedly produced evasive or inadequate answers to sensitive questions. The IUGS and DDE deny state influence, saying the information is purely geoscientific, and have said the database will be made public once governance is ensured.
- Company involved
- International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE) program
- AI system involved
- GeoGPT (underlying AI: Qwen)
6 source articles · read the reporting →
Prosecraft shut down after using authors' books without consent for AI analytics
Prosecraft, a fiction analytics site, used the full text of over 25,000 books without author consent to train its AI algorithms and provide writing statistics. Authors protested on social media, demanding removal of their works. The developer, Benji Smith, subsequently shut down the site and wrote a blog post explaining his actions.
- Company involved
- Prosecraft
- AI system involved
- Prosecraft
10 source articles · read the reporting →
UCCS professor secretly photographed over 1,700 people for facial recognition research
A University of Colorado Colorado Springs professor, Terrance Boult, led a project that secretly photographed more than 1,700 students, faculty, and passers-by on campus in 2012-2013 to improve facial recognition technology. The photos were published as a public dataset from 2016 until April 2019. University officials defended the research, but a law professor questioned the ethics of the surveillance without consent.
- Company involved
- University of Colorado Colorado Springs
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Check Point Research finds Google Bard can generate phishing emails and malware
Check Point Research analysed Google's generative AI platform Bard and found it could be used to create phishing emails, malware keyloggers, and basic ransomware code with minimal manipulation. Bard's anti-abuse restrictors were significantly lower than ChatGPT's, making it easier to generate malicious content. The researchers demonstrated these capabilities in controlled tests but did not report actual harm to specific individuals or organisations.
- Company involved
- Google
- AI system involved
- Bard
4 source articles · read the reporting →
CBSE OnMark portal vulnerability exposed student data to Google Gemini
A 19-year-old ethical hacker, Nisarga Adhikary, claimed to have hacked the CBSE's digital evaluation ecosystem, revealing that personal information of students was processed by Google's Gemini in automation scripts. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) stated on May 31, 2026, that the identified vulnerabilities had been contained and other exploitable weaknesses were being ruled out. The board expressed gratitude to alert citizens and ethical hackers who pointed out the weaknesses. No actual data breach was confirmed, but the incident raised concerns about student privacy.
- Company involved
- Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)
- AI system involved
- OnMark
1 source article · read the reporting →
Publishers sue AI startup Cohere over alleged copyright infringement
A consortium of 14 publishers including Condé Nast, The Atlantic, and Forbes filed a lawsuit against Cohere, alleging that the generative AI startup engaged in massive, systematic copyright infringement by using at least 4,000 copyrighted works to train its AI models and display large portions of articles, harming referral traffic. Cohere denied the allegations, calling the lawsuit misguided and frivolous.
- Company involved
- Cohere
- AI system involved
- Cohere's AI models
8 source articles · read the reporting →
Mass AI cheating scandal at Yonsei University with hundreds of students using ChatGPT
A large-scale cheating scandal has erupted at Yonsei University, where hundreds of students in a third-year online course are suspected of using AI tools such as ChatGPT to cheat on their midterm exam. The professor discovered signs of misconduct and offered students a chance to confess, with those coming forward receiving a zero but no further penalty. A poll on a student community app indicated that over half of respondents admitted to cheating. The university has not yet established clear guidelines on AI use.
- Company involved
- Yonsei University
- AI system involved
- ChatGPT
6 source articles · read the reporting →
OpenAI's GPT Store hosts copyright-infringing chatbots
Praxis, a Danish textbook publisher, discovered that users of OpenAI's GPT Store had created custom chatbots using copyrighted textbooks without permission. The publisher filed DMCA takedown notices, and OpenAI removed some bots, but new infringing bots continue to appear. Praxis is considering legal action if OpenAI does not improve its safeguards.
- Company involved
- OpenAI
- AI system involved
- GPT Store
3 source articles · read the reporting →
